In the summertime of 2024, when Ursula von der Leyen offered her first plans for her second mandate in control of the European Fee, many observers puzzled whether or not her Clear Industrial Deal would develop into the political ‘murderer’ of the earlier European Inexperienced Deal or relatively its offspring. The Clear Industrial Deal was printed as one of many new flagship initiatives in the course of the first 100 days of von der Leyen’s new time period on 26 February 2025. And it nonetheless builds to a big extent on the aims of its predecessor, so we will due to this fact name it its youngster. Mother and father, nonetheless, know that their kids usually wish to take their distance and mark their id by entering into precisely the other way of the one anticipated from them. Which means numerous dangers that we recognized for the European Inexperienced Deal might materialise.
To begin with, the scope of the Clear Industrial Deal just isn’t very clear. It neither names the important thing industries nor defines what’s ‘clear’, however establishes ‘know-how neutrality’ as the principle rule. Beneath such randomness, the EU will fail in prioritising the applied sciences of the long run that it wants for enhancing its competitiveness. The Clear Industrial Deal lists measures for six ‘enterprise drivers’ (inexpensive vitality, lead markets, investments, round economic system, international partnerships and expertise). Though renewable vitality applied sciences are talked about explicitly throughout most of those drivers, the Clear Industrial Deal caters for a broad, nearly eclectic vary of industries and vitality carriers. As a matter of truth, the proposals usually are not essentially tailor-made to the particular wants of the EU’s vitality transition.
It’s good to see {that a} new Clear Industrial Deal State Support Framework may simplify monetary help to renewables. Moreover that, the Clear Industrial Deal doesn’t counsel any brand-new initiatives or legislative proposals that purpose explicitly at accelerating the expansion of renewable vitality installations within the EU. Though not focussing on the challenges of a renewable vitality system, it tackles a few of its fundamental hurdles.
The profitable EU guidelines for rushing up allowing of some renewable vitality applied sciences are to be expanded; thus, they may doubtlessly simplify the roll-out of extra renewable vitality installations on the bottom. The Clear Industrial Deal suggests increasing these guidelines on quicker allowing past renewables to vitality infrastructure and storage initiatives (in addition to to industrial decarbonisation initiatives). That is promising as a result of delays in grid growth and connection hamper the usage of low-cost renewable electrical energy in lots of Member States.
Bottlenecks in grids as a fundamental hurdle may even be tackled with the introduced European Grid Bundle and the Grids Manufacturing Bundle. The Clear Industrial Deal persistently tries to set off demand-side flexibility to ease current vitality infrastructure, saying steering and proposals. Nevertheless, any detailed plans on how one can put together vitality networks and their customers for a renewable vitality system are lacking at this second.
It’s deceiving that the references to the vitality demand facet stay weak. The Clear Industrial Deal doesn’t check with vitality financial savings explicitly. Its Motion Plan for Inexpensive Power solely mentions obscure plans to discover a assure scheme for investments into vitality effectivity. In distinction with current EU laws and the European Inexperienced Deal, it mainly ignores the ‘vitality effectivity first’ precept. Though it options prominently the time period ‘round economic system’, the Fee makes use of it as a really giant umbrella that doubtlessly additionally entails a questionable know-how corresponding to carbon seize and utilization within the sense of ‘recycling carbon’. This might open the door for a continued use of fossil fuels.
The Clear Industrial Deal nonetheless sticks to soiled energies
Whereas accurately describing the pricey fossil gasoline imports as the largest menace to EU industries’ competitiveness, any phase-out trajectories for coal, gasoline and oil are lacking. The Clear Industrial Deal even promotes elevated liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) imports below Motion 3 of the Motion Plan for Inexpensive Power, for the aim of ‘[e]nsuring well-functioning gasoline markets’. It plans to discover direct EU investments in LNG export infrastructure in third international locations – possibly in a transfer to please the brand new Trump administration. Such a method deepens EU industries’ fossil gasoline dependency and will increase its import invoice. The Clear Industrial Deal, the truth is, would undermine the competitiveness that it desires to spice up. The Roadmap in direction of ending Russian vitality imports, initially introduced with the Clear Industrial Deal, has been postponed.
The ‘know-how neutrality’ dogma irradiates the Clear Industrial Deal, as in distinction with the European Inexperienced Deal, it bets on one other previous and expensive possibility, particularly nuclear vitality. The proposals to evaluate state assist for nuclear know-how and to speed up the deployment of small modular reactors weaken the European Inexperienced Deal give attention to renewable vitality.
Nuclear fusion vitality is removed from being a confirmed and mature know-how. It’s fully misplaced to think about it in a devoted technique in view of any investments for market introduction, not to mention for lowering electrical energy prices. And even essentially the most optimistic pro-nuclear advocates will admit that small modular reactors (SMRs) is not going to feed significant portions of electrical energy into EU electrical energy grids earlier than the 2040s. It’s relatively unrealistic to count on that the levelised prices of electrical energy technology from SMRs and different new reactors will ever get near photo voltaic and wind energy. Constructing new reactors of no matter dimension takes at the least one to twenty years. So why does the Motion Plan for Inexpensive Power, a plan that ‘presents measures to decrease vitality payments within the quick time period’, make licencing practices for brand new nuclear applied sciences and SMRs a precedence?
Will the Clear Industrial Deal be consistent with bold local weather insurance policies?
As a signatory of the Paris Settlement, the European Fee’s emission discount goal for 2040 has been due since final yr. Nevertheless, the Fee once more postponed the initially introduced 2040 local weather goal. The Clear Industrial Deal formally commits to net-zero emissions by 2050 and the 2040 goal of 90% internet greenhouse gasoline emissions discount. However is that this extra than simply lip service? The Clear Industrial Deal misses the prospect for a constant emissions reductions technique, as an illustration by setting sector-specific renewable vitality targets for the energy-intensive industries.
A missed alternative for truthful participation in Europe’s vitality transition?
Final however not least, the Clear Industrial Deal may result in conflicts about its distributive justice. The Fee’s proposals counsel numerous measures that primarily goal the established massive industrial vitality shoppers. Public ensures for long-term contracts that channel low-cost renewable electrical energy to these industries will doubtless be a win-win for enhancing each industries’ competitiveness and renewable undertaking builders’ funding safety. However bizarre households and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will most likely lose out. Such long-term contracts are not but accessible to such small shoppers. The allocation of prices and advantages of those contracts must be mentioned and mustn’t result in larger retail electrical energy costs for non-industrial shoppers. If energy-intensive industries are exempted from paying taxes and infrastructure prices, the burden should not then simply be shifted to households and SMEs.
The EU mustn’t undermine the social acceptance of the EU’s vitality transition. The Motion Plan for Inexpensive Power proclaims EU steering on community tariffs, on incentives for demand response and on taxation in the course of the subsequent months. Civil society and the renewables trade, along with the European Parliament, ought to use this chance to make sure that residents can profit higher from the EU’s vitality transition. There are a lot of extra instruments that can permit households and SMEs to chop their payments, corresponding to vitality sharing, block tariffs for an inexpensive and clear fundamental vitality provide, or focused help for constructing renovation. With out truthful participation, the Clear Industrial Deal might be perceived as one other elitist undertaking for the incumbents. The extra Citizen Power Bundle introduced by the European Fee for the second half of 2025 might want to guarantee that the Clear Industrial Deal doesn’t ignore bizarre households’ wants.
Tthis article was first printed on eu.boell.org.
